Lmao a big problem is that a lot of these influencers aren't actually wealthy. They can't actually afford their lifestyles, and the Chinese government has been trying to control "fake Internet personas" for a while.
China views social media as an extension of in-person relationships rather than it's own independent entity.
Split evenly, this would be more than 70,000 USD per employee. Of course, the ownership structure isn't entirely flat, but (for example) the founder and CEO only has a 0.7% share.
Al Jazeera with brilliant journalism as always.
Imagine complaining about the build quality of Chinese apartments when your reference point is... American ones.
No sheathing, drywall on inner walls, barely any insulation, plywood only for the minimum necessary to guarantee wind stability... Pot calling the kettle black, really. You can literally run through walls of new builds in the US.
China builds housing for the market. While quality might be high in tier 1, 2 and even tier 3 cities, that's not going to be as true for tier 4 cities that are designed to absorb the massive rural-to-urban migration of poor farmers... The market doesn't demand it. You're kidding yourself if you think even the shoddiest constructed apartment isn't better than the average rural home which not only lacks building codes but lacks modern materials.
A cherry-picked top 1% result is sort of what single-core performance is meant to evaluate.
Hamas will demand that all Palestinian hostages will be released and Israel won't "release them" and take even more. Unlikely to happen given Israel's track record.
Looks like the military sources cited by Ukrainska Pravda was an official AFU statement from the general staff.
I think there's no question that the plane has been downed by Ukraine. The only thing that's not been confirmed is whether the IL-76 was carrying POWs (though, given the fact that it was flying over Belgorod, what else would it be carrying? The IL-76 has the radar cross-section of a whale), but delivery of POWs to Belgorod airport by IL-76 is standard practice according to previous prisoner exchanges.
I honestly don't understand what all the resistance against these concessions are. Sure, in dollar terms it's sizable, but reparations don't need to be in dollar terms: they can be given through economic concessions that stimulate the economy as a whole.
For example, First Nations land within cities can be given zoning concessions to simultaneously address the Canadian housing crisis and drive profit to First Nations. First Nations businesses can be given greater tax concessions for R&D. The Canadian government can use its liabilities as a blank cheque to invest in anything, so long as First Nations people are the ones who profit from it.
Head of foreign service union says gun crime, health insurance issues are helping drive diplomats away
You'd think rich people could find their own people to screw consensually
O&G once again is the key driver behind foreign policy around the world: the US in the Middle East, China in the South China Sea, Israel in Gaza...
The renewables transition cannot happen quickly enough.
This is where China's "debt trap diplomacy" might actually be beneficial for Kenya...
China's loans serve to improve the top-line (economic growth), and China's loan concessions don't affect that. When Kenya puts Mombasa Port's 50-year operating and port fees up for collateral, that's a hit on the bottom line (Kenya's government revenues) but does not change the fact that the port still exists to drive economic growth. Moreover, often the short-term hit in port revenues is less than the interest that would've been paid on the loan, so these collateralized loans are often cashflow neutral or even cashflow positive to default on.
The IMF and World Bank are more focused on padding the bottom line (tax revenues) by increasing taxes and decreasing subsidies. What an insane policy.
If a country can't grow, how can you expect it to pay off it's loans? The entire principle of government loans in the 21st century is that GDP growth makes loans progressively less expensive. The IMF and World Bank exist only to keep developing countries poor.